


May, I -

by tardisthetrain



Category: Avengers: Infinity War - Fandom, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Infinity War spoilers, Major Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-15
Updated: 2018-05-15
Packaged: 2019-05-07 04:41:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14663532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tardisthetrain/pseuds/tardisthetrain
Summary: May Parker left 51 messages for Tony Stark when she realized Peter was no longer on the bus ride to his field trip.Tony Stark comes back to Earth with one message for May Parker.





	May, I -

Friday comes back online as soon as Tony is back in Earth’s atmosphere. He bypasses the news reports -  **IRON MAN MISSING ; MANHATTAN FACING DEVASTATION** \- and cuts right to the part he’s been dreading since he saw Peter still on board the ship. The display inside his helmet flickers from damage, then loads up the list of calls he’s missed.

4 Missed Calls from Pepper Potts

2 Missed Calls from Happy Hogan

51 Missed Calls from May Parker

There are _51_  messages from May Parker. Tony listens to every single one, listens to the panic in her voice rise in each one.

 _“Tony, what the_ hell _is going on?! Ned said that Peter- he-he jumped out of the bus?! And then his teacher is telling me he’s missing from the field trip? What is going on, I_ know _this has something to do with you_.”

 _“Tony, just tell me Peter is with you and he’s_ safe _.”_

“ _Whatever that-that_ thing _is in the sky, tell me Peter isn’t on that. What is - Tony, it’s going_ crazy _down here, please,_ please _just tell me what’s going on.”_

 _”Where is Peter, Tony? It’s been_ hours _, just- I just need to know he’s okay_.”

Tony holds his head in his hands as he listens. The messages get shorter, more panicked, until the last one when she says,

 _“Tony, your - Happy, or whatever his name is - I’m - he brought me upstate? I don’t give a shit if this is all top secret or something, Tony, I_ need _to know where Peter is. I need you to bring him back to me. Whatever that_ thing _in the sky was, it’s_ gone _, where are you? Where’s Peter? Please, **please** , where is he?!”_

 

* * *

By the time he gets to the complex, Tony’s listened to every message four times. Press is swarming at the gates, and a med team rushes at him as soon as he’s through the doors, but it’s all blurry, and he just follows along blindly. The med team patches him up, tells him he needs to get some rest, but it’s _Tony Stark_  that they’re talking to, and he can’t sleep. He can’t close his eyes for more than two goddamn seconds without seeing Peter disappear over

and

over

and

over

again.

  
“ _I don’t wanna go, Mr. Stark, please_.”

* * *

 

Others are at the compound. He catches a glimpse at Bruce pacing the halls, Natasha on the phone (with Clint, no doubt), and Thor talking to — Tony puts it on the pain meds, but he’s pretty sure that Thor is talking to a _raccoon_ sitting on the couch. Someone tells him that Steve is looking for him, but he can’t focus on that — not yet.

He needs to find May, needs to tell her what’s happened, needs to tell her that Peter _isn’t going to come back_.

A sick knot turns in his stomach as he thinks, wandering the compound's halls, that there isn't even a  _body_ for them to bury. Not even the ashes came back. They just...

Peter just  _disappeared_.

 

_"Mr. Stark? I don't feel so good..."_

* * *

He finds May in the room that he had made for Peter, for if he ever needed it. But now it's just an empty bedroom that the kid won't even get to see.

It takes him an agonizingly long time to find his voice. His hand trembles at his side and everything in the room is so silent, but it's so,  _so_ loud and he wishes he could just keep the shake out of his voice as he makes his way into the room and says -

"May?"

He already can't do this. He can't explain this to her, because he doesn't even  _truly_ know what happened. He can't tell May that her nephew is  _ **gone**_.

And he doesn't really have to. Because as soon as May turns around and sees Tony in the doorway and not Peter, she knows. She knows that something is wrong, that Peter should be the one standing there, should be standing in the middle of the room with his sheepish smile and should shuffle on his feet the way that he does when he doesn't want her to  _worry_ about what he's been up to. It should be Peter standing there, telling her -

 _"Aunt May, it was crazy!_   _There were these aliens everywhere. I mean- I_ think _they were aliens. One of them was from Missouri and he called himself Star-Lord. And there was a wizard there called Doctor Strange? It was so weird. And you should see the new suit! It's insane! It's got these robotic limbs, it's the coolest thing!"_

But he isn't. Because Peter isn't there. It's Tony.

May stands from the bed and raises a hand to cover her mouth. Tears are already running down her cheeks and she's already sobbing so much, and it's breaking Tony's heart. But he can't be the upset one here. He has to hold himself steady for now. He has to tell her that her nephew is never coming home.

 

_"I'm sorry_ _..."_

* * *

Tony sits May back down on the bed. She won't look at him. She keeps her hand against her mouth to try and quiet her sobs but it doesn't always work. Tony keeps talking, keeps explaining, but he doesn't want to be doing this. He wants to go back and fix all of this. He wants it to have been  _him_ that disappeared, not Peter.

"May, I'm so sorry," he says. And he hears Peter's voice in his head when he does. "I don't know... I don't know exactly what happened. All that the woman said was, ' _He did it_ ,' and then everyone started disappearing. He was right beside me, May. He was... He was  _right there beside me_. And then I heard him speak."

He doesn't want to keep talking. He wants to walk away, but he can't do that. Not to May.

"He said,  _'Mr. Stark, I don't feel so good_ ,' and it was all happening so quickly, May. I had him one second and the next he was..."

May chokes back a sob.

" _He was gone_."

 

**Author's Note:**

> It was a very slow day at work today, and so I decided to write this. Because I hate myself. Dedicated to the Sanctum Sanctorum (y’all know who you are), to Mari, to Hannah, to Keely.  
> And to all the fans that definitely didn’t ask for this kind of pain.  
> You’re welcome.


End file.
